On Friday, May 15, AABANY took part in the fourth annual Trivia Bowl hosted by the Asian American Journalists Association, New York Chapter (AAJA-NY). AABANY has participated in all the Trivia Bowls, except for year two, when we had a schedule conflict. (APA Heritage Month is a busy one for us!)

This year’s team included Chris Kwok (Co-Chair, Labor & Employment Law Committee), Francis Chin (Chair, Professional Development Committee), Tsui Yee (Co-Chair, Immigration and Nationality Law Committee), Joey Tsai (Co-Chair, Litigation Committee), Yang Chen (Executive Director), Steve Shapiro (longtime member), Linda Lin (Past President and Co-Chair, Judiciary Committee), Rio Guerrero (Co-Chair, Immigration and Nationality Law Committee), Ligee Gu (Recording Secretary, Co-Chair, Bankruptcy and Restructuring Committee), Gabe Arce-Yee (Co-Chair, Young Lawyers Committee).

The Trivia Bowl took place at Broad Street Ballroom, in the Financial District. In total, fifteen teams participated, mostly from news organizations, such as the New York Times, Newsday, ABC News, CBS News, NBC Universal News Group and CNN Money (two tables!). AALDEF and AABANY were the two teams from the legal industry. Dinner sponsor Panda Express also fielded a team.

The judging panel consisted of the following New York judges: Hon. Doris Ling Cohan, New York Appellate Division, Appellate Term, First Department; Hon. Laurie Lau, New York City Civil Court, Housing; Hon. Leslie Purificacion, Civil Term, Queens Supreme Court; Hon. James d’Auguste, New York City Civil Court, New York County; Hon. Alexander Tisch, New York City Criminal Court, New York County; Hon. Kathryn Freed, Supreme Court, New York County, Civil.

Here’s how the 4th Annual Trivia Bowl went down for AABANY:

Round 1: Advertising Slogans

Each round has 12 questions, read twice by the MCs (and only twice), after which the team members confer and write down their answers on sheets that are provided. Those sheets are collected at the end of the round and submitted to the judging panel for marking.

Would you know the answers to these questions (without the benefit of looking them up on your smartphone – that would be against the rules)?

1. What is the name of the moustachioed (we thought the MC said “pistachio”) Dunkin Donuts character who says, “Time to make the donuts.”?
2. Which state had a tourism slogan since 1969 that was awarded an advertising industry award in 2009?
3. What footwear does the Energizer bunny wear in the well-known tv commercials? Name the color and type of footwear.

We did get one of the above questions correct. Thanks to Joey Tsai for the correct answer on the name of the Dunkin Donuts guy. (Answers provided below. No peeking!)

We thought we didn’t do that well in round 1, with only 5 correct answers, but when the standings were posted, we were surprised to find ourselves in a four-way tie for second place, behind AALDEF, alone at the top spot.

Round 2: Current Events

Not our strongest round – we only got 3 out of 12 correct. Clearly, most of us on the team are too busy to read the paper everyday. Here are some sample questions, so you too can play along:

1. Name the director who is slated to direct the next Star Trek movie. (We got this one right.)
2. Name the city and country that the next host of The Daily Show, Trevor Noah, hails from.
3. Spell the last name of coach Mike K. of Duke’s NCAA basketball team. (We thought this was a trivia contest, not a spelling bee.)

Despite getting only 3 out of 12 right, we still managed to end up at the top of the standings, tying for first with AALDEF and Newsday. Hmmm … maybe journalists only report on current events and forget about them once they’re no longer current?

Round 3: Food

We did pretty well in this round, getting 6 out of 12 right, putting us in a first place tie with the VIPs, a team that included AAJA national officers. Let’s see if you can get the right answers to the following questions (again without the help of Google or Wikipedia):

1. Name the first food critic to receive the Pulitzer Prize. (Chris Kwok got this one. He was sure “100%.” And that’s a direct quote. Which we heard … All. Night. Long. And most of the time, he was right! Chris Kwok, you rock!)
2. In October, Gov. Cuomo named this food the state’s official snack.
3. According to Jennifer 8. Lee of the NYT, this country is given credit for inventing General Tso’s Chicken. (We were dubious of the answer but did not challenge it.)

Round 4: Science, Geography, Literature

We thought we would do well in this category, especially given how last year, the final category was Geography, and Gabe Arce-Yee helped us to conquer that round. I think we might have gotten something like 11 out of 12 in that category last year, shooting us up into a 2nd place finish, behind ABC News. However, the addition of science and literature may have been our downfall, as we flopped on those categories. We only got 3 out of 12 right, putting us in third place, behind the New York Times (2nd) and VIPs (1st). Some sample questions:

1. What is the title of Harper Lee’s new book, the manuscript of which was discovered last year? (Harper Lee wrote the classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird, first published 55 years ago.)
2. Name the NASA center from which the Hubbell telescope was launched.
3. Times Square is the busiest subway station in New York City. Which is the third busiest?

Round 5: The ‘90s

Most of our team members grew up in the 1990s so we thought we would rule this category. In fact, we managed to get 7 out 12 questions right, the highest number correct of the night for us. Despite the strong finish, the other teams got more correct answers than we did, leaving us in a three-way tie for fourth, along with AALDEF and NBC Universal. Congrats to Panda Express (third), VIPs (second) and New York Times (first). This result is somewhat reminiscent of year one of the Trivia Bowl, in which AABANY was in the lead through four rounds and fell to the New York Times, finishing second to their first place.

Try your hand at these questions:

1. Name Eddie Huang’s parents and siblings from the tv show “Fresh Off The Boat,” based on Eddie’s memoir of the same name. (We got this one right.)
2. Who were the candidates for President and Vice President for the Independent party in 1992? Last names will do just fine. (With Chris Kwok’s help, we got the right answer to this one too.)
3. Amazon was launched in 1995 but what was its original name? (We did not get this one, but if you do, well, it’d be kind of magical.)

Even though the AABANY team did not take first place, two our team members took home some great raffle prizes: Tsui Yee won a six-month subscription for his and her Birchbox sample boxes, filled with wonderful beauty and grooming products. Joey Tsai got four box seats to a Mets home game.

Trivia Bowl is AAJA-NY’s annual fundraiser, to raise money for scholarships for APA journalism students, so it’s a great cause, and AABANY was thrilled to be a part of it as a silver sponsor. Thanks to AAJA-NY for organizing the event, and thanks for including us. Thanks also to all the judges who helped tabulate the results, and thanks to all the AABANY Trivia Bowl team members! Special thanks to Julie Huang for capturing Yang Chen and Chris Kwok in their (premature) victory poses.

Here are the answers to the questions.

Round 1: Advertising Slogans

1. Fred.
2. Virginia. The slogan is “Virginia is for lovers.”
3. Blue flip flops.

Round 2: Current Events

1. Justin Lin.
2. Soweto, South Africa.
3. K R Z Y Z E W S K I

Round 3: Food

1. Jonathan Gold.
2. Yogurt
3. Taiwan. (We thought it was USA.)

Round 4: Science, Geography, Literature

1. Go Set a Watchman.
2. Goddard.
3. 34th Street Herald Square

Round 5: The ‘90s

1. Parents: Louis, Jessica. Siblings: Emery, Evan
2. Perot, Stockdale
3. Cadabra

How did you do? Did you get all of them right or most of them (without looking up the answers)? If so, contact us – we may be able to use your trivial mind to help us take first place for the first time.